Sunday, 2 February 2014

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Hamas movement has allegedly pulled back hundreds of gunmen previously deployed along the borders with Israel in order to prevent other Palestinian factions from firing homemade rockets at Israeli towns, according to an Israeli report released on Sunday.

The Hebrew language news site Walla reported on Sunday that according to Palestinian sources Hamas had pulled back 600 gunmen who had been deployed in border areas to maintain a ceasefire with Israel by preventing gunmen from other militant factions from firing rockets.

The reported move comes a day after Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon threatened to launch attacks against the Gaza Strip if rockets continued to be launched towards the Israel, saying that they would pay a "heavy price."

Hamas' move gives other Palestinian factions a green light to fire rockets at Israeli targets across the border, according to Walla. The move allegedly came in response to an Israeli airstrike on Thursday.
more